


Confluence

by LandBeyondtheForest



Category: Trigun
Genre: Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 17:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1135342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LandBeyondtheForest/pseuds/LandBeyondtheForest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When another plant independent emerges on No Man's Land, how will Knives and Vash's one hundred and fifty year old feud be affected?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Creep

Confluence

One

* * *

 

Vash the Stampede was meditating.

Birds chirped cheerfully and sunlight poured in from the open window. In the distance he could hear the shouts and laughter of children. As he sat there, the scent of fresh coffee and something that might have been donuts drifted into the room. He smiled.

It was a good day.

With a grunt, Nicholas D. Wolfwood stirred in the bed next to his. The pair had been travelling together for close to a month now.

Almost instinctually the priest reached for a cigarette, without even sitting up.

"Morning, tongari," he croaked in a voice still thick with sleep.

"I want to get going today. If we hurry we can get to North in a couple weeks' time," said Vash simply.

"All business this morning are we?" replied Wolfwood.

"Not really," said Vash. "I'm going to say goodbye to the kids after breakfast and then we can get going."

"We'll easily be here half the day if you do that. But you owe it to them. I bet they haven't had as much fun in the past year as they do hog-tying you."

"Right?" said Vash with a small smile. "But I won't take too long. They're getting better at it, so…"

"I still don't understand what exactly you're expecting to find in North City," choked Nicholas all of a sudden, in between drags on his cigarette. "And I don't think you know either, so what's with the rush?"

Vash just sat there, pensive and quiet for a moment before replying.

"I told you I can't explain it. It's just a feeling I have."

"Is it…him?"

"I can't say."

Silence passed between them.

"Those are bad for you, you know," said Vash, wrinkling his nose a bit at the cigarette smoke that was harshing his donut-mellow.

"Traveling with the Humanoid Typhoon is worse for me," muttered the priest with a smirk.

Vash sighed. Really it was a good day.

* * *

 

High noon saw the two men out on the street in front of the inn, attracting a crowd as per usual, with Vash scolding Nicholas for his latest cut-loose administration of divine justice.

"What are you doing? You can't just go around roughing up the towns people. We're gonna get kicked out of town by a mob….again," whined Vash.

"So what am I supposed to do, tongari?" quipped Nicholas. "Just sit there and let those guys make off with my bike? Love and peace only goes so far."

Vash looked at him like a wounded dog.

"What kind of a priest…"

"Look, I didn't start it!" snapped Nicholas.

"Well you sure finished it," plied Vash with a shake of his head.

Vash turned to survey the damage in Wolfwood's wake. Three men lie scattered across the road with bloody, though light, wounds and bewildered expressions plastered across their faces. Vash figured that it was pride rather than actual injury that had them frozen and dazed on the ground. Inside the combination saloon and inn where the pair had been sitting there were several overturned tables and broken chairs. Vash shrank to half his size when the elderly landlady marched straight up to him giving him the evil eye.

"Alright! Out! Get Out!" she yelled in his face.

"Hey wait a minute," whined Vash, "it wasn't me at all. It was all him. Why do I gotta take the fall?" he said while wagging his whole arm in Wolfwood's direction.

"I know now, I've seen you before. Everywhere you go, trouble follows. Out with ye both!" snapped the old crone.

From behind her came a couple of young men lugging what little personal effects Vash and Wolfwood owned, dumping them unceremoniously at the men's feet before the old landlady slammed the doors in both their faces.

Vash sagged and turned around to face Wolfwood, who looked a little out of sorts perhaps but otherwise quite content with a crumpled cigarette hanging from one side of his mouth.

"Maybe I was a little rash," he said, picking up the huge cross and slinging it across his back. "Well, we're on the road now!"

Vash slapped him upside the head.

* * *

 

Silence.

Elendira the Crimsonnail was surrounded on all sides by crushing silence. Outside the main chamber of the plant, there wasn't even the constant hum of the bulb. Knives was inside with the plant and she was left outside keeping watch. Elendira tapped her painted nails on the table just to break the infernal silence. Behind her, the corpse of the night monitor was beginning to annoy her. Ahead of her, the glow from the plant bulb was eerie, even to her.

She had been accompanying Knives on an ever-broadening journey north. They had begun searching in Inepril but soon they had visited almost every city in a line northwards. They stopped at every plant looking for…something. Elendira wasn't entirely sure what Knives was doing and why she should accompany him, but then she never was.

Being around Knives was like playing with fire, she thought. To be honest it thrilled her to know that if it weren't for her particular skill set Knives would probably have killed her a long time ago. He still might.

Knives reappeared from the main chamber with a serious look and Elendira stood.

"It's not this one," he said. "It's not here."

Elendira nodded slowly. "Then we're going to North."

"Yes," he replied curtly.

For months something had been drawing Knives further north. It had begun as a small prickle against his consciousness, like a feeling of nausea. Before long the presence grew. There was a definite other consciousness teasing his mind. He could tell that it must be coming from another plant, it must be one of his sisters.

"Is it…him?" Elendira asked.

"No," said Knives. He closed his eyes as if he were concentrating, listening hard for something in the distance. "No. He's my own blood. I would know him."

* * *

 

Vash sighed. He sat on the bus and tried to enjoy the cool night breeze blowing through his hair and drying the sweat on his brow. Wolfwood dozed in the seat next to him.

Vash stretched his neck against the feeling pulling at his consciousness.

"What is it?" thought Vash. "What is this feeling?"

He felt the familiar bristle along the back of his neck. It was a small sensation that seemed to expand up and out of him and forward. Forward to the north. He couldn't tell precisely where the feeling was coming from, which is why he and Wolfwood had had to keep travelling northward. But North City was the end of the line as the northern most city on the planet, so far as Vash knew. Beyond it there was only an endless desert. He had to find what was calling him so intently there.

He thought back to what Wolfwood had asked him in the morning. Was it him? Vash had felt Knives's consciousness before and it never manifested in this new way. Still it could be him if something had happened that had changed his brother in some way, the way the feel of his brother's mind had changed to him after July.

Vash sighed again, thinking about that time in the past.

But that time his brother had triggered Vash's angel arm and caused him to obliterate the entirety of Knives's lower body, more than likely. He couldn't imagine what could happen to his brother that wasn't caused by some manifestation of plant power.

Something that was his fault. Whatever it was, it made him uneasy.

The bus hit a bump and Wolfwood snored loudly, bringing Vash out of his reverie.


	2. Ultima

Confluence

Two

* * *

 

Knives felt a keen sense of excitement as he and Elendira approached the main plant of North City. He was so close. Something had been drawing him for a long while and soon he would be close enough to touch the plant, to commune with his sister being and find out why she had called him.

He hurried past the crowds of humans. He shrugged off the unpleasant creeping feeling of disgust that lingered at the back of his throat. Elendira trailed behind him. She looked almost worried that he would give in to his loathing and exterminate every last human in the city. But she needn't have worried. Knives was focused on his destination with singular determination.

Finally they reached the threshold of the plant. Knives remarked that it was strangely deserted. It was the middle of the night but still there should be someone monitoring the plant.

"Wretched creatures," he thought to himself. "They care less for a superior being than for a dog."

It did make things slightly easier. He and Elendira walked uneventfully through the empty facility until they reached the main room, where Knives's sister began to shimmer into existence upon his approach. He neared the bulb with hands outstretched. Placing his palms on the smooth, warm glass, he reached out to the being inside.

" _I have come_ ," he thought.

His sister smiled warmly.

" _Why?"_ she replied.

Knives fixed his sister with a questioning look but before he could reply Elendira called his name softly. Knives turned to see that another person had joined them in the room.

Standing in the shadows some ways behind Knives and Elendira was a woman. She was clothed top to tail in black. She regarded the pair before her angrily and Elendira noticed that strapped to her back was what looked like a long, blackish sword.

"Who are you?" plied Elendira smoothly.

The woman stared coldly at Elendira.

"Security," she said simply.

Elendira sighed and looked a bit non-plussed at the woman's archaic weapon. Who the hell carries a sword? But no matter. Elendira the Crimsonnail was always ready for blood.

Elendira swung her case around and let loose a volley of spikes. But before they could hit their target, the woman drew her blade, faster than fast, and with two quick swoops of the sword an unseen force rushed to stop most of the spikes and pushed Elendira back several yards.

Elendira quickly regained her footing. By this time Knives annoyance was fading and instead he wondered to himself whether he might have a use for the stranger. He stepped forward slightly.

"This plant," he began, "is my birthright. Stand aside now and you won't be killed. I might even have further use for you beyond this evening."

The woman fixed Knives with a hard stare and said nothing. Suddenly, she raised her blade in Elendira's direction. She showed no signs of backing down. Instead she addressed both of the intruders.

"Leave. Now."

Elendira took this as her cue to renew her attack. She brought round her case and summoned another flurry of nails even as the woman lifted her sword high. She once again used the sword to draw up the unseen force, whirling about and bringing down the blade forcefully into a wide arc. One nail grazed her side while Elendira went flying into a wall behind them all.

Knives was not a patient man. He was no longer amused by the display in front of him. He had come for one reason only and no human was going to stand between him and the plant. Calmly he summoned the angel arm. Dozens of preternaturally sharp blades emerged from Knives's skin and shot forward with deadly purpose.

Several things happened at once. Elendira regained her feet and began to close the distance between her and the woman, moving to attack at close range. The woman stepped to parry the blow and Knives's blades found their mark.

Knives was a bit perturbed. His blades had flown directly for the woman's head, but having dodged them, the woman now crouched beneath where the blades now stuck, lodged above her in the wall.

An eternity seemed to pass during which all parties seemed a bit dazed. Slowly, the woman stood up and regarded Knives with a curious, somewhat shocked expression. Then her expression shifted. It seemed to Knives that her expression now resembled one of understanding…almost recognition?

He didn't have long to ponder it. The woman faced him determinedly and lifted her blade above her head. For a moment all was stillness and then a great crackling boom ripped through the room as the sword sparked with electricity. Electricity, Knives realized, that was being channeled from the plant.

With a flash the woman swung the blade down and a force like a bolt of lightning streaked towards Knives, who had a split second to draw up blades to block it.

Knives wouldn't admit as much to himself but he was now deeply shaken. He had never known a human to be able to use plant energy in such a direct way. How could this human tap into his brethren? Unless…

"Wait!" he shouted over the din as the woman prepared another lightning strike. "You aren't human!"

"Neither are you," she replied icily before releasing her second bolt.

Knives deflected the strike and electricity crackled through the air around him. It resonated with him.

"We're the same!" Knives shouted. "Understand? We need to talk!"

"First get out of my city," she replied.

"You can't want to attack your own kind!"

"Try me."

The sword glowed with another charge and Knives made up his mind.

"I'll go," he said. "I'll go…for now."

Knives started to back away before reaching out to her with his mind. She tensed and looked at him with murder in her eyes before he quickly plied her with one question.

" _Just tell me one thing,"_ he began. " _Tell me your name."_

She stared at him hard, not backing down from the attack.

" _Ultima."_

* * *

Vash sighed.

It had been nearly two months since he had buried Wolfwood. He found himself wishing vainly that the priest were here. He might be able to say something to console the feeling of dread that had taken up steadfast residence in his heart over the past few weeks.

He didn't know exactly what he was doing. Knives was sick. Very sick. And Vash wasn't exactly qualified to help him. But he had a sneaking suspicion that he was the only one whom his brother would listen to in any case. At least now that Vash had put some bullets in him, maybe he would have to listen.

He felt like he could never tell anyone, but in his heart he feared that there would be no way to get through to Knives. He was afraid that his brother had been lost irrevocably so many years ago on that SEEDS ship, when Vash had made his choice about how to deal with the news of Tessla's death and Knives had made his.

Because the truth was the Knives wasn't unaware of the nature of humanity. He had eyes to see and ears to hear. It was his interpretation that faltered.

Lost in thought, Vash climbed the stairs to his brother's room and placed the cool glass of water he had brought on the nightstand across from Knives. Knives didn't look up from the worn old book he was reading, sitting up in bed. Vash waited through the silence.

"Today is our 151st birthday," he said idly. Knives continued to read. Only the fluttering of his turning pages periodically broke the silence in the room.

"Knives," Vash sighed. "Why won't you talk to me?" Knives placed a hand on his temple to cut Vash out of his field of vision and continued to read, brow creasing in annoyance and concentration. Vash continued.

"I wish you would say anything. Yell. Scream. Tell me how wrong I am!"

Knives had been awake for nearly two weeks after being unconscious for a time but hadn't said a word, not even a curse, to anyone. Vash didn't know if Knives's pride was wounded, if he was depressed or if he was just playing some childish game with Vash for having the gall to beat him in combat. Vash sat down in the rickety chair next to Knives's bed and sighed, his head dropping into his hands, elbows atop knees.

Knives finally lowered his dogeared book and coldly eyed his twin.

"You…," croaked Knives in a low voice, "…are a fool."

Vash's head shot up and he gaped at Knives, who continued to stare with all the hatred he could muster. Vash smiled slightly.

"Finally. I was afraid you were going to go on with the silent treatment forever." A muscle in Knives's jaw twitched.

"Look," said Vash, suddenly serious again. "We're going to have to have this conversation sooner or later so we might as well start now. Talk to me."

"About what? The same thing we've been talking about for one hundred and fifty years? The same thing you refuse to accept? That you're not a human, never will be, and can't peacefully live among them? About how you're condemning hundreds of your own brethren to a slow death? No, I'm tired of talking, Vash. You should have just killed me."

Vash looked hurt at his brother's torrent of words. He found he couldn't meet his brother's gaze so his eyes shifted to the lightly sweating glass of water.

"Killing you isn't the answer," he said quietly. "If I could just make you see." He wrung his hands in front of him. "I know you have reasons to believe the way you do, but—"

"I have the only reason," cut in Knives. "All you have are platitudes." Vash bristled.

"That's not true. I've spent a great deal of time among them, and I know humans can change. I know that not all people are like the ones you surround yourself with—who, by the way, are the reason I haven't been able to live peaceably."

Knives sat speechless so Vash continued. He had waited years to say what he was saying and couldn't seem to stop himself.

"And why did you feel the need to surround yourself with those people? The ones you sent after me? Could it be that you have to in order to keep believing what you tell yourself?"

"Vash—"

"I think I'm right. And there's something else. I think you're running from the past. Running so hard that you don't even know who you really are—"

"You're wrong—"

"I know what it is, brother. You're afraid. Afraid that all you are is a battery-"

"Yes, I'm afraid!" Knives suddenly shouted. "I'm afraid for you! For all of us!"

"Afraid for me?" replied Vash. "Were you afraid for me when you sent your worst to try to kill me?"

"Yes," said Knives quietly, regaining his composure. "I knew they wouldn't be able to kill you," he added at Vash's incredulous look. "Everything I have done…everything has been for you."

"You're wrong, Knives. You did it for yourself. To calm your fear."

Knives scoffed and jerked his head away from Vash to look out the window at the setting suns. Vash gazed at the floor. Silence once again took the room.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore," he said finally. "You don't need to make them afraid of you."

The sound of the front door slamming interrupted the solemn quiet of the room. A call of "Vash" came up the stairs from Meryl, who had evidently just gotten home with a load of groceries she wanted help with. Vash thought for the millionth time how dangerous it was for her to be here at all, but the diminutive lady insisted it was her job and in reality, Vash had no heart to argue with her. He felt brave when she was nearby.

"Knives—"

"Go help your fucking pet, Vash."

Deciding that Knives wasn't going to talk anymore, Vash sighed and rose heavily to his feet. He walked slowly to the door, leaving Knives in silence.

Frowning, Knives blinked at the rosy light of the suns sinking below the horizon as he continued to stare into the distance. He didn't yet know when or how, but he had to get away from Vash as soon as possible. As if to chide him, his bullet wounds seemed to pick that moment to twinge with increasing pain. He couldn't deny the sinking feeling that he had failed. Again. He had failed to persuade Vash. Hadn't even made him think about his position in the world, the futility of his life and the plight of the plant angels. Once he was away, he would have to begin anew. He sagged with the weariness of his purpose. It really would have been easier if Vash had just killed him.

Knives hadn't decided yet whether to tell Vash about the other plant independent he had met, since his twin was apparently completely unaware. Knives knew that Vash was much less in touch with his true being than himself, but he was surprised that his brother didn't know or at least suspect. Part of him wanted to grab Vash and tell him in a vomit of words all that he knew and guessed and wondered. But part of him just wanted to get out from under his brother's watchful eye and find the other plant by himself. He wanted to know about her, how she came to be and just now he was especially curious how she related to humans. But he wasn't sure whether it would be a good idea for her to know Vash right away. In any case. he and Vash had been alone for one hundred and fifty one years. Another little while wasn't going to matter. He had time to decide whether to tell Vash. First he had to concentrate on healing and getting away.


	3. Quickening

Confluence

Three

* * *

 

A short time later saw Vash on his weekly journey to a little café in town that had the best donuts. He had skipped out early on working on fixing up the house on the outskirts he was staying in with Knives, Meryl and Milly. Between trying to get Knives to open up again and then working hard out under the burning suns, he had been left low in spirits and wanted to get away for a little while, maybe pretend he was drifting along like he always used to. He supposed he should at least be glad to be settled down for a little while but then he was used to the fast life of drifting and slipping back into that character, just for a short time, ironically made him feel a sense of stability that had been lacking ever since his duel in the desert.

Except his feeling of stability was threatened by the sensation that someone was watching him, which had been bothering him all day. He shrugged the unpleasant feeling away.

Once he had reached the small café and had his order in hand, he settled at a nice little glass table under the café's awning. He sighed happily and gazed at the light blue sky. Slowly drifting clouds stretched endlessly in all directions. It was days like today that made him truly glad to be alive. These were the kinds of moments that he wished he could spend with his brother again.

Vash stiffened. Someone was watching him. He could feel the stare. Slowly he turned around to look and promptly turned right back around sheepishly.

Staring at him across the street was, in Vash's humble opinion, a very hot chick. While he was thinking of what to do, she stood up from her seat and began to cross the street towards him. Vash nervously twirled a donut around one finger.

"Vash, you studly character!" he thought to himself. "Is it the denim jeans? Girls really seem to go for them…"

When he looked up she was standing right in front of him. To his chagrin he realized now that she was closer that her stare wasn't exactly a friendly one. He smiled anyway.

"Hello, miss," he said cheerfully. "Donut?" he added, offering the pastry still around his finger.

"Cut the crap," the strange woman said irritably, settling heavily into a seat across from him.

"What?" he asked good naturedly, his eyes nearly disappearing into his ridiculously huge grin.

"You know why I'm here," she said. Vash looked at her askance and then cleared his throat dramatically and adopted what he hoped was a seductive voice.

"Miss, I'd like to think you're here because of my irresistible charm but maybe it's because of my jeans… anyway, it would mean a lot if you'd eat these donuts with me."

The woman looked at him confusedly. Vash stared back at her with starry eyes.

"Excuse me," she said suddenly. "I think I've mistaken you for someone else." She started to stand up so Vash started talking, hoping to keep her attention.

"Oh people tell me that all the time! In fact, I've been told that I resemble the notorious outlaw, Vash the Stampede!" he laughed.

"Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll just go."

"Wait! I uh…I really did mean it about the donuts."

"Sorry, I have a gluten intolerance."

"Oh really? I myself am slightly allergic to wool and sometimes I get this rash on my…hey wait a minute!"

Vash got up to follow the woman, who was quickly walking away, but stood up too fast, knocking over the table, and tripped. The woman turned around at the clatter.

"Are you ok?" she asked Vash, who was currently flat on his ass and fretting about his donuts that were now littered all over the ground.

"I'm fine!" he replied with a smile, rubbing his leg where he had fallen on it. "Um…buy you some coffee?"

The woman just looked at him for a second and then she laughed quietly.

"I guess you are kind of cute…," she said. "Ok."

"Great!" said Vash. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Ultima," she said, extending a hand to help him up.

The bare skin of his hand barely brushed her extended fingers and all at once the two of them felt a wholly new sensation. A furious shock raced from the tips of Vash's fingers up his arm and spread out in to the very fiber of his being like a harmony. It wasn't a painful sensation but rather a supremely pleasant one, as of touching someone new but somehow multiplied. In that instant of pure feeling he glimpsed something hidden in her being, knew what she was, and she all of a sudden knew him. Knew him the way one knows one's name. It was instantaneously as if the two of them had known each other for years, each other's mannerisms, desires and fears a comfortable litany.

As the feeling ebbed the two of them were still. Slowly Vash lowered his hand and she did the same. The pair were awkwardly still amidst the bustling noises of the street. He was the first to break the formidable silence surrounding just the two of them.

"The one calling me to the north…was you," he said, partially to himself.

There were so many things he wanted to say, to ask. Where were you born? How old are you? What's your favorite color? Tell me your story. Tell me about the first time you felt sunshine and tasted bitterness. But he didn't say any of those things.

"Calling you?" she responded from what felt to Vash like a million miles away.

"From further south, all the way up here. I felt you," he said. "I could feel your being."

Back at the house Vash shared with the insurance girls, they talked all night. He told her everything. His whole long sad, sordid, happy, boisterous, disgusting and precious story. He told her about his childhood, Rem, Tessla, and Knives. About July and Jeneora Rock. Only the tolling of the bells outside let them know that time was passing. She listened stoically and he felt at ease, as though he were talking to the earth or the sky. A dam had burst inside him and every detail was rushing out.

When he was done, she began.

"I always knew I wasn't the only one. I just knew somehow."

She was born on the eve of the last run of a plant. It was the night watchman who found her and pulled her into the world out of her mother's carcass. He brought her home. Fed her, clothed her, raised her. From an early age she had known she was different and her abilities as a sentient plant became known to her quickly. Her father the watchman was a metal worker by trade and it was he who had eventually fashioned the sword that she carried. A sword designed to conduct electricity, her energy.

Now she understood who Knives was and knew he was the one she had met at the plant in North City and the one she had mistaken Vash for earlier. She understood how it was between Vash and Knives.

When the white morning sunlight began to filter through the lacy curtains of the living room, Vash excused himself to serve Knives breakfast. He quickly rushed some stale donuts and coffee up to his twin's room. Vash veritably threw open the door, eager to break the news to his brother, when he was greeted by the sight of Knives sitting at the edge of his bed.

"She's here, isn't she?" he asked Vash.


	4. Sides

Confluence

Four

* * *

 

"Well, you've seen what I can do with electricity," said Ultima. "Beyond that, I have some sort of regenerative power. Do either of you?"

Ultima and Knives sat talking in his room. Ever since she had come to live with Vash and company, Knives had begun to monopolize her time. But she didn't seem to mind. Both of them were eager to learn more about their own nature.

"What do you mean, regenerative power?" asked Knives. Ultima elaborated in a small voice.

"When I was little," she began, "a group of bandits shot up my hometown. My father—"

Knives gave her a look of consternation.

"I mean, the man who raised me," she said, "went with a group to confront them. He told me to stay at home but I followed them anyway. Long story short I ended up with two bullets in my stomach. But to everyone's surprise, in a couple of days I was fine. Like it never happened. My body even pushed the bullets out before the doctor could go digging for them."

Knives, who had been listening patiently, shifted in his seat.

"No, as far as I know, Vash and I don't have that kind of capability," he said. "The only way we can regenerate, I think, is to rest inside a plant bulb."

"You can do that?" she asked.

Knives explained to her how he had recovered from the loss of his legs after July.

They both sat in stony silence for a bit at the mention of one of the bloodiest episodes of contact that Vash and Knives had had over the years. Vash calling up the stairs about dinnertime broke the silence.

"I'll go get it," said Ultima, since the still somewhat injured Knives was taking all meals in his room.

When she returned, Knives took a moment to gaze at her unawares while she sat down his plate and silverware. He regarded her closely. He had never seen another plant other than Vash and every detail was precious to him. She was tall. Knives mused that all his kind must be. He was about a head taller than her, he figured. She wore what looked to be black leather breeches with a long-sleeved shirt made of the same. Leather gloves capped her sleeves. Almost all of her skin was covered, he noticed. Good for keeping the sand out. And strapped to her back was her ever-present sword, a black scabbard for a black blade. Her face seemed perpetually stoic but in her pale grey eyes shown a keen intellect. But what struck him the most was that her long hair was almost entirely inky black. All except for a blonde forelock which, drawing a hand through her hair, she moved to one side.

"Your hair," he said, almost wistfully. She eyed him suspiciously.

"What of it?" she asked.

"Don't you know?" Knives replied slowly. "The blackness is…decay. When all of our hair turns black, we die." She was surprised and looked a little nonplussed.

"That's news to me," she said. "But my hair has always been this way." He regarded her curiously and she continued.

"I was born the product of a dying plant. I guess I was born already close to death." Knives looked passively back at her.

"Death follows us around, you know," she said matter of factly. Knives squinted a little.

"What an odd thing to say," he offered.

"Do you deny it?" she asked. Knives seemed to ponder for a while before responding.

"No," he said, "but I would say that death follows us around by necessity."

"Death follows your brother by necessity? "

"That's…complicated," Knives said.

"That it is. And I'll tell you now, I want no part in this feud of yours," she plied smoothly. "I have only lived for 30 years and I am young yet but I won't waste my time on this planet mediating the two of you, despite Vash's clear wishes. If you want to waste your time bickering you do so alone."

Knives was taken aback at her bluntness. He bristled.

"It only seems like a waste to you," he began in a hushed tone, "because you didn't see her there. Tessla," he breathed the name so softly as if speaking loudly would break it. "Her body dissected…organs suspended in preservative…" He broke off.

She looked at him knowingly. Minutes passed in silence as both of them were left to their thoughts.

"I have never spoken about it before…" said Knives. "But you have to know what we saw. You have to understand."

"I understand," she said thoughtfully, tenderly. "But I can't condone what you have decided to do."

"You say you want nothing to do with us but you've already taken his side," snapped Knives.

"All this talk of sides," she replied icily. "It makes me want to go far, far away."

This statement had a sobering effect on Knives. He didn't want her to be far away ever. He had hoped that they could be together, separated from the humans. At least she wouldn't interfere when he took it upon himself to wipe them all from the face of the planet. His kind shouldn't live far flung from each other. He had been trying to beat that lesson, among others, into Vash for the past hundred odd years.

He recalled the night that he and Ultima had met.

"Why did you demand that I leave the night we met?" he asked.

"You attacked me," she said incredulously. Before Knives could argue she stood up.

"I'm going now," she said. She silenced Knives's accusatory look. "But I will be back. I'm just going to town with Meryl." She started to leave but turned around and addressed Knives again.

"You really should listen to your brother though. Just listen. He's much clearer headed than you think he is." Knives scoffed.

"You don't even know him yet. You don't know the depth of his delusion. He even denies that he is a superior being. He's more infatuated with humanity than his own beleaguered kind. How can you even entertain the possibility that he could be right?"

"Yes, Vash is right. But," she sighed, "What you have said is also right."

Knives sat in silence when she finally left.

* * *

 

Meryl picked up a box of bullets and opened it, inspecting the contents.

"So have you told him yet?" asked Ultima suddenly.

"Told who what?" replied Meryl offhandedly.

"Have you told Vash how you feel about him?"

Meryl looked up at Ultima in surprise before setting the box of bullets in her shopping tote.

"Is it that obvious?" she asked with a defeated expression. Ultima smiled.

"No. At least not to him," she said. They both were quiet as they rifled through the general store's wares, Meryl blushing a little.

"I think you should go away with him," said Ultima seriously.

"What? Don't be silly," said Meryl.

"Meryl," replied Ultima. "I was just thinking about you and Milly…and Knives. The more I speak with him…I just don't think it's safe for you to be there." She met Meryl's eyes with a look of concern.

"That might be true," said Meryl, "but Milly and I have a job to do. And I don't think Vash would let us be there if it weren't safe." She spoke with polite but firm defiance.

"Alright," said Ultima. "I don't want to have to do this but I'll just have to take Knives away."

"What?" Meryl nearly shouted. "Are you serious? Vash would never let you! "

"That's why he doesn't need to know," replied Ultima. "And I need your help. Just get Vash out of the house sometime so I can move Knives."

"How do you even know Knives will go?"

"He'll go." Meryl looked skeptically at Ultima at first. This didn't feel right. It felt like betraying Vash. Ultima picked up on her doubts.

"I'm going to do this with or without your help. Somehow. If you don't go, he has to go. But," she added sincerely, "I would appreciate your help, Meryl."

Meryl rubbed her temple, turning everything over in her thoughts. Something told her this was a bad idea, but she couldn't deny that Ultima had a point. Every time Vash and Knives were together in the past, something awful had happened. Ultima's determination made up her mind.

"Well," huffed Meryl, "how am I supposed to get the Humanoid Buffoon out of the house?"

"I don't know. Make something up. …Ask him on a date," laughed Ultima.


End file.
